Cheaper by the Dozen
Cheaper by the Dozen is a 2003 American family comedy film directed by Shawn Levy, and stars Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt. It is a remake of the 1950 film of the same name. The film was released on December 25, 2003, by 20th Century Fox and grossed $190 million worldwide against its $40 million budget. Plot Tom Baker (Martin) is a football coach at a small rural college in Midland, Indiana, where he raised twelve children, and his wife, Kate (Hunt), has written about her story in a book and hopes to send it to her friend to publish it. At the film's beginning, Tom unexpectedly receives an offer from his old friend and football teammate, Shake McGuire (Jenkins), to coach at his alma mater in Evanston, Illinois. Tom accepts the offer, and he and Kate begin making their plans on moving to Evanston. All twelve children find out and demand the move be put to a vote, even though Tom says it would not have any power. Tom loses the vote, even after he and Kate join, but goes ahead with the move anyway, claiming there will be more money and that they will be a "happier and stronger family". However, the atmosphere at the Bakers' new house is tense, and the situation at school for the children is even worse, although their new neighbors' the Shenks seem allright, especially their first and only son, Dylan. Moments after moving in, Dylan accidentally falls and swings on the chandelier, thus Tom swings on it afterwards to rescue him. However the chain fails; Dylan falls and is catched by his parents, while the chandelier smashes on the floor, along with Tom, who is not injured. Regardless of the incident, Dylan decides to invite the Baker children to his birthday party. When her book is ready for publication, Kate is recommended to do a national book tour to promote it. Tom thinks that he will handle everything around the Bakers' house while Kate is away, so he decides to hire the Bakers' oldest child, Nora (Perabo), and her boyfriend, Hank (Kutcher), to manage the children. When Nora and Hank arrive at the Bakers' house to manage them, the children plans to make Hank the target of their prank by soaking his underwear in meat and assisting the Bakers' pet dog, Gunner, to attack him by chewing his bottom, prompting him to refuse to assist in baby-sitting. As a result, Nora is angry at the children and later drives off with Hank, while Tom berates the children for their prank (and also for causing the chandelier repair man to fall off his ladder and smash another lamp), cuts off their allowance within a month. Moments after Kate departs for her national book tour, Tom realizes that he cannot handle the children on his own after a chaotic night. In reply to this revelation, Tom tries to hire a housekeeper, but nobody is willing to work with a family as large as the Bakers, so Tom decides to bring the football players from work into the Bakers' house for game practicing in the living room to prepare for the Saturday night football game as the children perform chores and their household games. However, the children start causing trouble at school, in which Kyle and Nigel hurt their kindergarten teacher, and the others stand-up against a group of bullies by fighting them for picking on one of their siblings, Mark and are suspended from school after Mark and the others, along with the bullies were sent to the principal's office. Because of these incidents, Tom grounds them all and forbids them from going to Dylan's birthday party, although they already have presents for him. Without Tom noticing them, the children sneak out of the house to give Dylan his presents. While discussing the plays, Tom overhears party-goers screaming from Dylan's house as one of the gifts turns out to be a snake. Tom and the players go to Dylan's house to investigate and discovers that the children have snuck out. After successfully catching all the kids, Tom manages to catch Sarah in the bounce house, but during a mess, Tom fails and the bounce house explodes. In all of the commotion, Dylan gets injured by Tom and is later sent to the hospital as Tina forbids the Baker kids from ever playing with Dylan again. Tom is forced to cancel the game after Shake advises him not to bring the players in the Bakers' house or the children in the department again. Kate overhears from the children about the chaos and cancels the book tour to take charge of the situation. Kate's publisher decides to create an additional promotion for her book by inviting Oprah Winfrey to tape a segment about the Bakers in their home instead. Despite much coaching from Kate, the Bakers are not able to demonstrate the loving, strongly bonded family that Kate described in her book. When Mark (Landis) becomes upset that his pet frog, Beans, has died, and Sarah tells him that nobody cares and calling him Fedex once again, a heated fight erupts moments before the segment starts, leading the cameramen to tell Winfrey to cancel it. Afterwards, Mark runs away from home, prompting the Bakers to find him. Tom indulges a hunch that Mark is trying to run back to the Bakers' old home, and eventually finds Mark on an Amtrak train en route from Chicago to Midland. Reuniting with the rest of their family, the Bakers begin to address their issues with each other. Tom ultimately resigns from his position at his alma mater and settles for a less-time consuming job. The film ends at a Christmas dinner with the family when the chandelier lamp breaks off again and smashes. Cast The Bakers * Steve Martin as Tom Baker, Kate's husband (the father) * Bonnie Hunt as Kate Baker, Tom’s wife (the mother) * Piper Perabo as Nora Baker, Tom & Kate’s daughter (1st child), 22 years old * Tom Welling as Charlie Baker, Tom & Kate’s son (2nd child), 17 years old * Hilary Duff as Lorraine Baker, Tom & Kate’s daughter (3rd child), 16 years old * Kevin G. Schmidt as Henry Baker, Tom & Kate’s son (4th child), 12 years old * Alyson Stoner as Sarah Baker, Tom & Kate’s daughter (5th child), 11 years old * Jacob Smith as Jake Baker, Tom & Kate’s son (6th child), 10 years old * Forrest Landis as Mark Baker, Tom & Kate’s son (7th child), 9 years old * Liliana Mumy as Jessica Baker, Tom & Kate's twin daughter (8th child), Kim's fraternal twin, 7 years old * Morgan York as Kim Baker, Tom & Kate's twin daughter (9th child), Jessica's fraternal twin, 7 years old * Blake Woodruff as Mike Baker, Tom & Kate’s son (10th child), 6 years old * Brent Kinsman as Kyle Baker, Tom & Kate's twin son (11th child), Nigel's identical twin, 5 years old * Shane Kinsman as Nigel Baker, Tom & Kate's twin son (12th child), Kyle's identical twin, 5 years old Others * Paula Marshall as Tina Shenk * Alan Ruck as Bill Shenk * Steven Anthony Lawrence as Dylan Shenk, Tina & Bill’s son * Richard Jenkins as Shake McGuire * Ashton Kutcher as Hank (uncredited) * Tiffany Dupont as Beth * Cody Linley as Quinn * Jared Padalecki as an unnamed bully (uncredited cameo) * Joel McCrary as Gil * Dax Shepard as Camera Crew Member * Regis Philbin as himself * Kelly Ripa as herself * Frank Welker as Gunner (voice) * Wayne Knight as Electrician (uncredited cameo) * Amy Hill as Miss Hozzie, Kyle and Nigel's Teacher (uncredited) The film's director Shawn Levy makes a cameo as a reporter. Category:Movies